by Erin Hayes
Alec kept a hold of her even as he unfastened the tie above the window to let down the curtain. Then he pulled her farther into the room and sat her on the edge of an old wooden table.
The witch tester device was tucked into the back of his pants—that must have happened back in the alley, before she’d kissed him. Perhaps if she could get him out of his pants, she could get the device and run.
He pushed her knees apart and stepped between her legs, his arousal bumping into her own. Sure, this way a ploy to escape, but there was no denying her attraction to him.
“Tell me your name,” he said into her ear. He nipped at her shoulder. “I’ll know if you’re lying.”
Adira couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a man’s hands on her, and she was certain it hadn’t felt this right…this good. Every nerve in her body was singing with desire, lighting her up with a different kind of hunger. Maybe that was why her name foolishly slipped from her mouth just then.
“Adira.”
With him so close, Adira could smell the sweat that dampened his skin and the lingering death of a Ravager, but instead of being repulsed, she found herself more aroused, as if this made Alec somehow more real, this moment somehow more authentic.
She held her breath, listening for any noise outside the apartment. The world around them was silent and still, aside from their breathing. She should get away. The sooner the better. But right now, she just wanted to enjoy this moment. Wanted to close her eyes and pretend she was a normal woman who didn’t have to run or hide.
His rough, warm hands slid under her cloak and cupped over her breasts, his thumbs grazing against her hardened nipples as he deepened the kiss, and she reached between their bodies to rub her hand over his erection.
Wow. She’d not put much thought into what was beneath his pants before now, but she hadn’t expected him to be so thick and sturdy. It suited the rest of him nicely, but Adira found the girth intimidating.
As she massaged him through his pants, he bit into her lip, and she moaned softly. Everything about him sent hot shivers through her body. Adira gasped as warmth flowed into her undergarments, and Alec smirked as if he knew, somehow, what he was doing to her from the inside out.
Heat blooming through her face and ears, Adira reached for the ties on his pants, but he snatched her wrists and held her hands against the table, leaning over her.
“Slow down,” he growled.
“I thought we don’t have a lot of time?”
He leveled his gaze at her, digging the pads of his fingertips into her wrist. “I know what you’re trying to do.”
She arched an eyebrow. “And what is that?”
His grip on her wrists was becoming almost painful now, but the press of his erection between her thighs had her more aroused than distressed. “You can’t expect me to keep giving you the chance to stop this.”
“What is it you want to stop, Alec? This?” She raised an eyebrow. “Or what comes next?”
Alec’s eyes darkened. How she wished she knew what he was thinking. Certainly by now he had at least entertained the idea of letting her go.
His jaw clenched, his fingers dug deeper. “You don’t know anything about me.”
Adira didn’t flinch. “Enlighten me then.”
Alec opened his mouth, then closed it again. His hungry gaze nearly devoured her, and instead of speaking, his mouth sank onto hers once more, his grip on her wrists unwavering.
He seemed angry now—with himself, or with her, she wasn’t sure, but there was a fury in the way he kissed her, as though he was punishing her for causing his confliction.
As his erection rubbed between her legs, the pressure within her mounted. Was it as intense for him as it was for her?
Adira’s mind spun. Any other man would have taken full advantage by now, but Alec held back. She knew he wanted her. All of her. Each time she was certain this was it—this was the moment he would strip both their clothes and drive himself into her—he stopped.
When Alec released her hands to explore her breasts again, the touch sent a shudder through her, and she slid her hands along his bare shoulders and across his back. His tanned skin was still sticky from sweat, but this just made Adira dig her nails in, wanting to remember the feel of him before she fled.
As his unrelenting lips deepened the kiss, Adira’s hand migrated down his back. This might be her only chance to grab the witch tester and run.
But she didn’t want to leave. Not yet. She wanted to stay like this forever, and that desire frightened her more than anything.
Ultimately, though, this was a choice between life and death.
Adira reached for the witch tester, but it wasn’t there. It wasn’t where she remembered.
Alec’s hand grabbed her wrist again, and a prick pierced against her neck.
Adira gasped into his mouth.
Damn it. She was supposed to trick him, not the other way around.
She yanked against his grasp, but he held firm. The haze of arousal crashed around her, shattering in all the wrong ways, stunning her into a fresh, panicked alertness.
“Sorry,” he said, and in his voice, she heard that he meant it. His eyes were full of regret, and he shook his head. “I have to do what this city needs me to do. I have to think of all the lives that would be affected.”
Adira’s heart sank. There was no escaping this. She didn’t have the energy for magic or the strength to overpower Alec, and intellectually, he was her match. She wouldn’t outsmart him.
“What happens next?” she asked quietly.
Alec’s attention dipped to the device in his hand. “Next I hope that you’re not a witch.”
The grooves on the device were already starting to flow with her blood, filling up the different runic symbols and casting a faint blue glow.
“I am,” she whispered, her voice heavy. “But you knew that already, didn’t you?”
He tucked the witch tester back into his pants. “I wanted to be wrong.”
Adira had to admit, he’d been clever enough to use her own tactic against her. But there was no denying that kiss was more than just a ploy to trick one another. There was something between them. Adira was counting on it.
“You’re going to turn me in?”
“I’m going to do my job.”
“Uh-uh,” she said. “Don’t do that. Don’t distance yourself from this. We all have choices.”
“That applies to you, too,” Alec said, glaring. “You knew what you were, and yet you make no effort to help save this city.”
How dare he. He didn’t have a clue what it was like to be a witch. Adira’s anger boiled over until she reared back and slapped him with her free hand.
“Fuck you, asshole. Nobody can save a city if they’re dead.”
In one swift motion, Alec twisted Adira’s hand behind her back and pulled the other to meet it. “It is not my job to worry about that.” He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “And don’t ever hit me again, or I will make you regret it.”
Alec’s husky voice made that sound sexier than she imagined he intended. If only she had a free hand, she might even test what he meant by that. Instead, she lifted her chin defiantly.
“I probably won’t live to see the day,” she said, challenging him. “But perhaps I should thank you.”
Alec pushed her out the door and back in the alley. “Thank me for what?”
“For avenging my death, or dying while you try.”
She didn’t need to explain it. He would know what she meant. When the Ravager killed her in the next Display, Alec would be the one to take the beast down…if he could do so without the help of her magic.
“You’re a witch,” he said. “You can take out the Ravager yourself.”
He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself. Adira spun back toward him, and he let her. Tears sprang to her eyes.
“I can’t,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I’m not ready. If I was ready, don’t you think I wou
ld have been able to get away from you by now? Don’t you think I would have used some spell to stop you from coming after me?”
Alec tightened his grip on her wrists. His face tipped down to meet hers, and his teeth gritted together. “You didn’t want to leave.”
“I did before you kissed me,” she said quietly, staring into his eyes, searching for the softness she knew was there…somewhere. “Tell me that kiss didn’t change things for you, too.”
“It didn’t,” he said, almost too quickly. He looked away. “Our city needs you.” There was a note of sadness to his voice now. “You have to do this. You can’t run forever.”
Adira’s eyebrows stitched together. The way he said that sounded like—
“Why aren’t you ready?” he asked. “What do you need to face the Ravager?”
She shook her head, wishing she knew. “Time. Time to learn my abilities, to practice and refine them. I’ve spent my whole life avoiding using magic unless absolutely necessary.”
“It’s necessary now,” he said. He loosened his grip on her wrists, but didn’t let go. “You have thirteen days.”
“Thirteen days?”
Alec lifted Adira’s hand and pressed his lips to the inside of her wrist, his gaze trailing up to her face, a fire burning in his eyes. He pulled a way, his hold still firm on her wrist where he had just kissed her.
“Learn how to defeat a Ravager,” he said. Her wrist tingled beneath his thumb. “As I see it, you’ve already done it once before.”
Adira narrowed her eyes. So he knew she was the one who saved him. Was this his way of returning the favor?
“And what then?” she asked. “Marry the Regent? Have his children?”
Alec’s gaze fell away. “See that mark on your wrist?”
Where Alec had kissed her, a black runic symbol shaped like a crude letter R burned into the soft inner flesh of her wrist. Raidō. The runic symbol for journey.
“That mark is how I will find you,” he said. “In thirteen days.”
The Regent must have given him a raidō rune to use for tracking, though Adira doubted he meant for Alec to use it to buy a witch more time.
A shuffling sound came from around the corner of the open side of the alley, and the old woman from the cart appeared.
“Thirteen days?” the old woman asked. “Until what?”
Adira’s heart throttled in her chest. There was no way the old woman was going to accept Alec letting her go after she stole from her cart.
“I’ll replace the fruit,” Adira said quickly. “And I will be brought in. He’s just giving me…time…time to….”
The old woman tilted her head. “Time to make things right?” she asked. “Well, then, I suppose you should come with me.”
Chapter Eight
Could witches control a person’s mind?
The thought pounded into Alec’s skull as made his way back to the marketplace. As far as he knew, that wasn’t possible. Yet he hadn’t been himself back there. Alec Kladivo did not make exceptions to the law. Alec Kladivo would have brought that woman in immediately.
Instead, he’d done everything to protect her. He’d even led her into that room, letting her think he was playing into her ploy, so that no one would see him test her. And why? Because if she had turned out to be a witch, he didn’t want to risk any witnesses.
Alec squinted at the sun. It must be late afternoon by now. Regent Dvorak would be back at the castle. Alec pressed back his shoulders as he made his way across the marketplace and through the gates that led to Dvorak’s land.
He’d let Adira go. He would return to the Regent emptyhanded.
Although it may have been a moment of weakness on his part, he could not dishonor his word. Adira had thirteen days, as promised. But after that, he was taking her in.
As Alec trudged up the hill toward what was once Prague Castle, his thoughts drifted back to the alley. More specifically, to her.
For someone afraid of her destiny, she was brazen, coming onto him like that. Under different circumstances, he might have taken more from her that just that kiss. He’d considered it. He’d had to stop himself several times from relieving her of her clothes and driving into her.
So why hadn’t he?
He’d been turning that question around in his head while they kissed, and the question haunted him even still. The woman was clearly streetwise, a fighter, a criminal. Yet there was something innocent about her. Something that made it feel wrong to fuck her the way he should have. That had been the same something that led to him giving her those thirteen days.
Alec had no doubt he would find her when that time came, but something told him seeing her again would only make things harder.
Already he was bewitched by knowing her. Couldn’t stop thinking about her. Regretted the absence of her breasts in his hands, her erect nipples between his fingertips, her sweet moans against his mouth.
He should have just fucked her. Maybe that would have quelled his lustful infatuation with her long enough for him think up an excuse to give the Regent for returning emptyhanded.
Alec stopped and stared over the Vltava River. Where was she right now? Was she thinking of him as he thought of her, or just thinking how she’d gotten away, how she would evade him when her time was up? The old woman seemed to want to protect her, but he still didn’t know why. What he did know was that Adira had stolen from that woman.
He had the plum to prove it. The plum that he now knew would be marked with the magic he would need to hunt her down in thirteen days, should the mark he left on her wrist fail him.
But would she be safe until then?
What if she didn’t make it that long?
More and more, he didn’t like the idea of that woman being out of his sight.
Alec stood in the great room, looking out over the city below. The Sector’s Bohemian architecture was crumbling. St. Vitus Cathedral had already been demolished years ago to make room for new homes, as more and more farmers were wanting to move into the city and away from the borders.
Could he blame them? He’d once lived on the borders. He’d once seen a Ravager make it past the barrier. Everyone wanted to be as far from that as possible—even him.
A hand came down on Alec’s shoulder with familiar pressure and grip, the same way it had a thousand times before. Regent Dvorak.
“What have you found?” he asked. Alec hadn’t heard the Regent cross the opulent marble floor, but that wasn’t uncommon. No one ever heard Dvorak coming.
Alec kept his gaze on the city outside the large cathedral window. “The new device is promising, Sir.”
“But did you find a witch?”
The truth burned bitter in the back of Alec’s throat. Normally he would tell the Regent. Normally, he would have brought the woman in already. But Adira wasn’t ready to face down a Ravager. It wouldn’t have done anyone any good to bring her in.
So why did he feel guilty for his decision? Why did he feel he had to hide the truth from Dvorak, who was the one person in the Sector who did the most to protect every one?
What if he wasn’t afraid of Adira facing the Ravager? What if what he was really afraid of was her sleeping with the Regent?
No. He couldn’t think like that. What was meant to be would be. In thirteen days, he would find her, she would face the Ravager, and she would hopefully save the Sector by bringing forth an heir. All he needed now was to stall the Regent.
Which would be worse? That he failed to find a lead, or that he’d found a lead and she’d escaped? Both would be a lie. He’d let her go. And neither lie would be acceptable to Dvorak.
“Alec?” the Regent said. “I asked if you found a witch. The guards reported a chase.”
“Oh, sorry,” Alec said. “There was a thief. I saw the chase and thought they were after a witch, but by time I found her, the vendor she stole from had found her as well. I agreed to let the vendor handle it.”
There. That hadn’t even been a lie.
&n
bsp; “Hmm…” The Regent removed his hand from Alec’s shoulder. “You’ll resume the search tomorrow, then?”
“First thing.”
“I’m counting on you.” The Regent’s words sounded equal parts threat, desperation, and confidence. “I only had enough magic to make one device, and I’m trusting it with you as my most capable guard and witch hunter.”
“Of course,” Alec said, lifting his gaze to make eye contact with Dvorak. “I won’t let you down.”
Dvorak tipped up his chin. “She must be powerful, Alec. We’re running out of time.”
A weight sank in Alec’s gut. The Regent had taken in Alec and his family when Alec was just a boy. Had given him an opportunity that others wouldn’t even dare dream of. Alec’s life was good because of Dvorak. Because they both acted on their belief in sacrifice for the greater good.
And here was Alec, hiding the possible key to salvation.
The Regent turned as if to leave, but Alec spun around also. “Sir?”
Dvorak froze, then slowly turned to Alec, a thin smile on his face. “Yes?”
Alec knew the Regent hated being addressed after the conversation was over, but there was just one thing Alec needed to know.
“It’s about the device,” Alec said.
Dvorak folded his hands in front of him. “Is something wrong with it?”
“No, it’s not that.” Alec took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how to word this without sounding as though he doubted the Regent. “I just want to be sure I am using the device correctly. Could we use it to test women who claim to be witches, to avoid their need to face a Ravager in the event they aren’t?”
Dvorak ran his tongue across his teeth and pursed his lips. “You mean like the woman today?”
Alec clenched his teeth. Well, yes, that was what he had meant, but to say so didn’t seem wise. “I hadn’t even thought of that, Sir. I meant going forward.”
The Regent crossed the floor until he was standing inches from Alec. Dvorak was a head shorter, despite being one of the taller men in the Sector, but he had a way of being as intimidating as a beast.